Everyone is worried about the climate change issues that the globe is facing right now. Through out the world the nations are coming up with new ways of battling this environmental disaster. Norway’s finance minister came up with a plan that will help nations combat the dangerously increasing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere.
Kristin Halvorsen, the Norway finance minister said that the global cap should be imposed on how much greenhouse gas is ‘spewed out’ to the atmosphere. The amount should then be divided up through out the world with individual countries sharing a certain percentage.
According to Norway’s finance lady, the quota system works the best. She thinks that the quota system also allows countries to auction. As Halvorsen mentions:
If you implement a quota system, you can withhold a small portion for auction, and then maybe the UN or some other international organization gets the revenue from this auctioning, and then finances adaptation for poor countries.
I think what Norway is trying to do is somewhat similar to the corporate carbon credit system that already exists today. Companies can exchange their carbon credits. In a similar fashion, countries should be able to trade the carbon credits.
Under the current form of Kyoto protocol, there is no cap on carbon emissions. Interested folks are implementing their own quota system which is causing confusion. So, if the world is going to cut down emissions by 2020, there needs to be a set quota for countries. In a way, Norway is right on track.
Image credit:Nytimes
